


Natural Instinct

by OTTSTF



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Tickle Fights, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 07:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18545443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OTTSTF/pseuds/OTTSTF
Summary: El discovers one of humanities most hard-rooted primal instincts.Tickling.





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> So.  
> This is literally inspired by the real-life antics of my beautiful lady, [FangirlingStrangerThings](/users/FangirlingStrangerThings), who decided she'd become an abusive cutie who can't stop tickling me.
> 
> _Send help._

Hands-  
No… _fingers._  
Scratching… underneath someone’s arm. Or neck.  
The other person… laughs?  
And they can’t control it?

“Dad?”

After a few moments, the man in question, the chief of police, drops his coffee to the table and responds.

“Yeah kid?”

“What is that?” she asks him, pointing to the TV. “What are they doing?”

Hopper watches for a few seconds, seeing what she’s questioning, and once again, he finds himself feeling sorry for the girl he’s taken on as his daughter. So isolated, she doesn’t even know what-

“Tickling.”

\- is.

“Tickling?” she questions, in her habit of just repeating the word in a certain way.

“Yeah. It’s… weird, really. It originates from our animal instinct. Parents would tickle their children as a way to train them to defend themselves.”

“Why does it make you laugh?” she asks, looking both curious and confused at the same moment.

“I have no idea.” he admits. “I guess it’s just… hardwired into us, or something.”

She considers this, as displayed by her facial expression that he’s learned to read.  
“Am I ticklish?” she questions, before taking her fingers to her own neck, imitating the actions of the TV scene.

“You can’t tickle yourself.” Hopper smiles softly, loving the moment of innocence he can share with her. 

“Why not?” the girl questions, once again looking confused.

“I guess it’s because you’re expecting it.” he responds, earning an even more confused look.  
“Yeah, it’s weird.”

She looks back to the TV briefly, but then looks down to her fingers again. Hopper can tell she’s still wondering.

“I can try tickling you.” he offers. “If you want.”

She looks to him, with a small smile forming on her face.

“As long as you promise to not blow the cabin up.” he quickly adds, not knowing what _tickling_ could cause that overpowered head of hers to do.

“I’ll… try… not to?” she says, not knowing what to expect, herself.

Hopper takes a breath, expecting the worst, but still wanting to give her this experience of childhood.

“Alright.” he walks on over, dropping himself alongside her position on the sofa.  
“You ready?”

She responds with a simple nod of her head.

“Remember: You asked for this.” he reminds her, before quickly taking his fingers under her arms.

Her body jolts, alongside an excited yelp emerging from her lips, having clearly not expected the sensation that arises from the simple touch. She instinctively brings her arms down tight, in a poor attempt to stop the man’s fingers from inflicting this  _strange_ feeling upon her.

The laughter that emerges from the girl quickly warms Hopper’s heart, putting a huge smile, crossed with a smirk, on his face. It reminds him of Sara, his late daughter – tickling wars were very common with her, so reliving that now with El feels nothing if not surreal. And, of course, he knows that El deserves this. She deserves all the normalities of childhood, even if she is a bit older than what normal kids would experience them at.

Her laughter, mixed with pleads for him to stop, fill the air around them. The man wouldn’t normally expect this of himself, but the sound of her laughter, such a rare sound that it used to be, brings him so much joy. Now that she knows what tickling is, he has no plans to stop.

He finds himself laughing alongside her, so much so that neither of them notice the brightening lights, or the distorting TV image and audio alongside them. Contrary to Hopper’s fear, nothing ends up broken.

He relieves her of the attack eventually, leaving her panting for breath. Letting her recover, he leans back, containing the chuckles that threaten his throat as a result of her reaction.

Of course, once she does recover, she  _has_ to ask the question he’d never thought  _he_ would have to answer.

“Are _you_ ticklish?”

“No.” Hopper responds, shaking his head.

“Are you sure?” she questions, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. 

“I’m very sure.” he confirms, smirking down at her mischievous ways.

“Let me try.” she tells him, bringing her hands up towards him.

“Nope.” he quickly drops his arms tight.

“Why not?” she giggles, starting to dig her fingers into the tight space that she aims for.

“Because, I’m not-”

And then, she reaches her mark.

“I’m _not_ ticklish!” he insists, despite saying it through a laugh he failed to contain.

“I think you’re lying.” she tells him in a sing-song voice, wearing a bright smirk as she starts to exact her revenge.

“I’m-” he tightens the vice grip of his arms, although to no avail now that her hands are where they need to be. “ _not_ ticklish!” finishes, to no point.

“Oh yes you are!”

“Fine!” he gives in. “I am!”

His booming laughter, a sound that El has  _never_ in her life heard, encourages her to continue. That, combined with the sensation of being able to have this kind of fun with a father figure, makes her decide that she needs to do this more often.


	2. Attack

Awaiting the arrival of their friends for a day of arcading and adventure, El and Mike lay in her fort inside his basement, taking the moment of peace to bask in the comfort of each-other’s company. They lay facing each-other, with no words needing to be shared. Simply staring into each-other’s eyes brings them the peace and relaxation that they so dearly love.

El finds her eyes slowly drifting from his, wandering the rest of his face. His cheeks, and nose, and hi soft, loving smile. Further down, her eyes then linger on his neck for a brief moment, where she suddenly remembers a sensation she’d discovered only weeks ago.

She takes a hand to his bare arm, slowly roaming it upward as if rubbing it. She continues past the starting point of his shirt’s short arm,  slowly bringing her fingers into a walking pattern across his upper chest, nearing his neck.

“El? What’re you doing?” the boy questions, before quickly discovering where her fingers intend to roam to.

“You’re not about to-”

_Yes. She is._   
And she yelp that emerges from him has her laughing immediately.  
“El!” Mike begs. “ Stop!”

She has no intention of stopping however, giggling loudly alongside his uncontrollable laughter.

“Please!” he clenches his head down upon his neck, so she immediately moves a hand underneath his arm, resulting in another surprised yelp from the boy in front of her.

“What did I do to deserve this?” Mike questions through his infectious laughter as he tries in vein to grasp her hands.

Upon her mercy, Mike tries to quickly catch his breath following the attack. Through his deep breaths, he questions, “Where did that come from?”

“I just remembered it from a week ago.” she tells him with an innocent shrug, although accompanied by a smirk.

“A week ago?”

“Hopper taught me what it was after I saw it on TV.” she informs him.

“You… had a tickle war… with Hopper.” he realises. “Now _that_ would be a sight to see.”

She laughs, remembering the fun and laughter she’d shared with her father.

“Hold on…” Mike suddenly realises. “Does that mean _you’re_ ticklish?”

“Nope.” she quickly says, although her eyes and smirk do her no favours.

“Are you sure?” he asks, also smirking himself as he slowly begins to reach his hands towards her.

“I’m sure.” she giggles, now beginning to instinctively clasp her arms and neck closed.

“I think you’re lying.” Mike laughs, before successfully digging his fingers between her shoulder blade and arm, extracting a yelp of laughter from her.

She tries to respond, but through the gasps for air and laughs that break out, she physically cannot talk.

Mike has never heard such a beautiful sound in his life. The laughs and giggles coming from El are literal music to his ears, and if tickling her is the way to get to hear it  every day for the rest of his life, so be it.

He soon relives her of the attack once he catches sight of the small night-light beside them flickering brighter than normal. He doesn’t want to cause her powers to stretch out further than that.

Through her gasps of air, El smiles warmly at the boy in front of her, still laughing ever so softly.

“I love you, Mike.”

He smiles wider than ever, feeling goosebumps and butterflies every single time she says those words.

“I love you too, El.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love them. I love them so much. And I love the lady that inspired this.


End file.
